


Rewired

by NovemberNights



Series: Eyepatch Keith AU [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blade of Marmora Keith (Voltron), Eyepatch, Eyepatch Keith, F/M, Galra Keith (Voltron), I should start using that one more, Light Angst, No crystallizing rips in space here, The Castle Ship Lives, i think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-19 05:04:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19968490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NovemberNights/pseuds/NovemberNights
Summary: Keith struggles to cope with the loss of his eye.Katie forces him to rationalize the situation.Set during year four in space, about two months after Keith's eye injury.





	Rewired

**Author's Note:**

> This took me so loooooooooong to write and it's not even that long, whyhyhyyy.

The bright lights of the training room onboard the Altean castleship cast short shadows underfoot as Keith dodges a blow and sidesteps, toeing around his opponent for a better angle of attack. He narrowly ducks a kick, air breezing over his back, and then launches his fist upwards—only for it to glance off its target. A hand lands on his shoulder in the momentary opening created before he can recover, and another on his arm, and Keith hits the floor on his side with a pained grunt.

Keith heaves for air as he pulls himself to his feet, wiping a hand across his sweaty forehead and subconsciously pushing his bangs out of his face. He steps back and returns his feet to a ready stance.

“Again. Aim for my palm,” Krolia says, unmoved from her place where she’d thrown him, and holds her left hand up level with her shoulder. 

Keith nods, positioning his arms while exhaling slowly. He steps forward and throws a punch at Krolia’s hand with practiced form. His fist lands in his mother’s palm, but slightly off. Krolia closes her hand around his fist and lowers it.

“You’re still left of center,” she notes, crossing her arms. Keith’s hand remains in her grip.

Keith huffs irritably, “I know that! I’m so close, but I don’t know what I’m doing _wrong,_ ” he grumbles.

“Keith, your recovery is progressing far faster than normal for this kind of injury,” Krolia reminds him, “And you’re still recuperating. Your body needs to adjust, but you have to give it time.”

“We don’t _have_ time, though, mom!” Keith growls, pulling his hand back, “You saw what Lotor did last week. The Coalition will be preparing for a counterattack; I can’t just sit around doing nothing.” In his rant Keith doesn’t hear the training room door open and close, nor does he see Krolia’s gaze flick toward the source. When he’s finished, Krolia unfolds her arms from their place across her chest.

“Do you really think you’ll be able to help anyone before you’re fully healed?” Katie jumps into the conversation, passing one of the two water pouches in her hands to Krolia, who accepts it with a quiet “thank you.”

Keith stares at her, momentarily stunned out of his frustration. He feels Katie slip her free hand into his, and then she sits down cross-legged on the training room floor, pulling him down with her slowly. She twists their fingers together while pressing the second water pouch into his other hand.

“Krolia’s right. Losing an eye… it’s not something that heals quickly, so to speak. Most people regain nearly full functionality after six months. You’re almost at that point in less than two. I think the biggest reason you’re as capable as you are right now is because the healing pods… I don’t know, rewired your brain?” Katie looks to Krolia, who shrugs unhelpfully, and Katie’s shoulders sag as she sighs, “Yeah. No one’s quite sure. That’s my best guess, and even if that’s the case, your body still needs to get used to it. You’re not back in peak fighting condition yet, so what? You’ll get there. Right now you’re a liability if someone has to follow you around to cover your blindspot until you get used to it.”

Keith slides his fingers out of hers and pries the straw off the back of his water pouch, irritably fumbling to shove it into the slot in the top. He takes a long sip from the pouch, his lone eye fixed on the floor.

“I just… I don’t like being idle. I feel fine and nothing’s _wrong_ with me, so I feel like I should be doing something. Being productive. But I can’t,” Keith’s voice becomes strained as he speaks. He draws his lips into a thin line and looks down at his free hand with a one-eyed stare, flexing his fingers as if testing their mobility.

“I know how that feels,” Katie says softly, closing her eyes. All the time spent fruitlessly scouring Galra databases looking for her family was still painfully recent. She inhales slowly and opens her eyes, looking Keith in the eye.

“But you need to heal first and adjust to the changes. Because we need you first before we need whatever it is you think you should be doing,” Katie places a gentle hand on his shoulder and leans a little closer, “And I need you. _Alive._ ”

Keith’s eye flits between the ground and her face, but Katie holds her gaze, silently willing him to rationalize a little.

_Come on, you know I’m right._

_Don’t be stubborn._

Keith sighs and sets his shoulders back, “I see your point.”

Katie beams at him and reaches around to shove her hand into her back pocket, “I’m glad,” she says, bringing her hand up. The black bandana Coran had given her dangles from between her fingertips, and she bops Keith on the nose with it, causing him to go cross-eyed— _if it could be considered that_ —and blink in surprise, “Because I have an idea.”

Keith looks at her skeptically as he pushes her hand out of his face, “And what might that be?”

Katie gets onto her knees and shuffles around behind Keith with the bandana in her hands, “I’ve been talking with Coran lately, now that we have time to look into your… er, condition,” she pauses, moving the bandana in front of his face. She wraps the dark fabric around his head, hands twisting it into a neat knot, “Coran remembers a friend of his who’d lost an eye once, and had blindfolded himself in training in order to become less dependent on his vision and use his other senses more effectively.”

“Is it too tight?” she asks, pulling on the knot she’d made to secure it. “I don’t know why Coran didn’t mention anything sooner,” she adds, grumbling.

Keith shakes his head, “No. Feels fine.” He angles his head back towards her on his left, “And that sounds pretty typical of Coran.”

Katie leans over to Keith’s right and hums, “I suppose that’s true.” 

Keith whips his head around to face her, lips drawn in a slight frown, “You moved.”

“Exactly,” she grins to herself and taps a finger on Keith’s nose, and his brows knit together.

“I see.”

Katie giggles, this time from his front, and Keith turns his head again, “What?”

“You’re blindfolded, you can’t see.”

Keith opens his mouth to retort, but then shuts it and grumbles, “Can we just get on to whatever exercise you’ve thought up?”

“Yes, yes. Krolia would you like to help?”

“Of course.”

Keith frowns into his bandana-imposed darkness, “What are we doing?” One of Katie’s hands slips into his and she pulls him to his feet, and he feels her other hand on his shoulder, steadying him. He reaches up and follows her arm back to her shoulder.

“We’ll start off simple. Krolia and I are going to walk around, sometimes noisy sometimes quiet,” she explains, gently stepping away from Keith. “I want you to focus on listening—to everything. Pick one of us and try to follow our movements.” Her voice grows somewhat distant as her footsteps retreat.

“I understand.”

“Good,” Krolia says from behind him, and Keith spins around to face her in surprise. Or where he thinks she is, at least.

Elsewhere, Katie giggles, “Okay, new rule; no talking.”

Nodding, Keith turns toward her voice, listening for her footsteps. He opts to stay in one place, turning around as he deems necessary to keep up with Katie. Mostly she moves around him in circles, but frequently changes speed, sometimes switches direction, and at times moves in odd ways, like hopping or what might be zig-zags, by the sound of it. 

They continue like this for a while, a good half-hour if Keith had to guess, until a notification tone rings from somewhere in the room. Keith turns toward it with a frown as the footsteps around him become still.

“Ooh, my update just finished installing!” Katie cheers.

Keith cracks a smile at that. _Cute._

“If you guys don’t mind, I’d like to go down to the labs. I’ve been waiting on this update for hours.”

“Go ahead. I need to go shower anyway,” Keith says.

Krolia chuckles quietly nearby, “I should probably do that myself.”

“Awesome, thanks!” Katie chirps, and to Keith, it even sounds like she’s grinning.

“No problem. But, uh, could you come take off the bandana?”

“Oh, yeah!” Katie says, footsteps moving toward him. “By the way, if you liked this training exercise, Coran has ideas for more that I think will help you heighten your senses. He and I can run the exercises for you, and probably give the training bots some code if you want to keep practicing on your own,” she adds, taking the now-untied bandana away from his face, “I know you like to stay busy.”

Keith blinks, adjusting to the bright lights of the training room, and looks at Katie, and the smile on her face, and returns it with a soft smile of his own. _How did he get so lucky?_

“I’m looking forward to it.”

Katie smiles wider and flings her arms around him in a quick hug, “That’s great! I’ll talk to Coran about it some more and let you know what we come up with. But for now, I’m off to the labs! See you guys later!”

“You too,” Keith calls after her as she jogs excitedly toward the door, waving back at him and his mother. The door slides open and shut with a quiet _woosh,_ and the training room falls silent.

Krolia turns toward Keith, and he raises an eyebrow curiously.

“I have never seen a face more obviously in love,” she says, a cheeky smile pulling at her lips.

Keith feels his face heat up and buries it in his hands, “ _Mom!_ ”

“What? It’s true. And you’re cute when you do that.”

Keith groans in embarrassed agony.

Krolia chuckles, “You picked a good one.”

“I know, mom.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hear me out; What if Krolia met Sam and asked him about human parenting. He told her all about how _important_ it is to tease your children about their love lives. Yes.
> 
> I have a bunch of ideas for more one shots in this series but they're all out of order & idk what order i should work on them in/eventually post them. Do I say "screw it," write them whenever I feel like it, post, and later organize them? Or plan it out timeline wise(ish) so there's like... buildup & stuff. and i don't spoil things. hrmmmm
> 
> and i really should add in something about _why_ Lotor is being such a problem in the background, lol. hrggg


End file.
